Without rewatching the episode, I thought that Belkov had no crystals at the time of the episode (they had been mined out long ago) and had been living off funds supplied by the Federation for the mining operation, sending back crystals mined but withheld whilst there were still any left (productivity being half of what had been expected). Belkov, ship and no crystals were then sent into the black hole by a disfunctional /"unhappy" computer.
I didn't think this was a very good script. Given that he was obviously able to steal Feldon crystals (perhaps the Federation had lost its records of Argyle Diamonds' operations?) Belkov could have nicked a few crystals whilst mining at full pace and shut the planet down when it was mined out. Given the price of crystals, this would have given him funds for luxury with a much better chance of living to enjoy them. I suppose Belkov might have thought he'd find another deposit and been doing exploratory mining during the second half of the operating period, and found he couldn't and thought that the Federation might shoot him for incompetence. However, if this was the case it should have been worked in to his explanation.
I hated the "infinite" amplification property of the Feldon crystals. Logically, a crystal used to produce unlimited energy must have unlimited mass, and be a black hole. I think script writers should avoid naked singularities. I think the only thing sillier I've seen was the Voyager-in-a-black-hole episode of Star Trek. If you've got survivable faster than light travel already, black holes become dangerous but potentially non-lethal navigational obstacles.
Still, why let the absence of a decent script get in the way of asthetic appreciation of Servalan's gowns and appreciation of Avon in black leather?
To me, the oddest thing about the episode was Vila's behaviour. He shot without trying any other ploy first - a sensible thing to do, but very un-Vila like. I thought his behaviour in the rest of the series was not personally physically aggressive, with the exception of Blake (and even then he apologised). In Gambit, Vila kills without hesitation in a very calculated fashion.
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